There are some things to think about with respect to the data analysis presented here: 1) On number of papers published, citation value, etc. There may be an

There are some things to think about with respect to the data analysis presented here: 1) On number of papers published, citation value, etc. There may be an inflation in the numbers of PhD's granted for little more than serving as a PI's lab tech for a few years. That requires a few publications. Often the publication count is inflated by splitting a paper that would be more coherent as a single publication into several publications to fluff a CV. Such papers may not get many citations. This is about politics and careers, not about the quality of science being done. 2) Universities are in the market trying to patent discoveries and license them to big corporations. This is very bad for basic scientific discovery in many fields, as funding is directed away from those fields. Basic science underlies later applied science applications. Shutting off basic research is killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, but the administrators want those sweet patent license payments more than anything else. 3) People with the potential to do difficult science and math, but who happen to come from a background where they can't afford college without large loans, are much less likely to go into academic research than in prior eras in the USA when college was less expensive. Many would like to do research but the economics of current education systems are incompatible with that goal. 4) Some areas of research are simply not being funded anymore due to pressure from entrenched interests in areas like energy, pharmaceuticals, etc. Renewable energy research is a threat to fossil fuel interests. One-shot cures for diseases like HIV/AIDS are a threat to the profits of pharmaceutical companies selling lifetime maintenance programs. Research into environmental pollution is a threat to a wide variety of interests, as is research into declining biodiversity. The corporatization and financialization of literally everything is really out of control, and these are the side effects.